Better late than Never

Andrews sister Lauren got married last weekend to Ezra Mell. Here are some pictures from the wedding day! Everything went so well and the party was so fun! Here is Lauren coming down the stairs for the BIG reveal!!
We had to wait in a small room attached to the Ladies room and Lauren couldn't sit on her dress otherwise it would wrinkle, so she squatted for a while.
Here is Andrew and I on the way to the reception. . .he looks like he had too much to drink in this picture, but we hadn't even gotten to the party yet!
This picture is blurry, but I really like this shot of the happy couple dancing. They were so entertaining to watch. At some points during the night I was wondering what happened to my sister-in-law who hates to be the center of attention!!
Here is the father/daughter dance. We weren't sure this dance was going to happen, but it was really cute!

This dance was not as cute!! BIG FISH has A LOT of fun that night!! I ran and got my pregnant sister-in-law, Jen to save me from this dance. It sure was fun though!

I love their shadows in the backround. I should be a photographer, OK it was just a lucky shot, but it is still beautiful. Of course they didn't smash the cake. I was very disappointed! I love to see a mess with the cake, but you know if he wants some later he better not smash the cake!!

Here is the picture that I took with Avery the day of the wedding. She was about to leave and we weren't dressed yet, but I wanted a picture with her anyway. . .

And. . . Look at how big she is getting. I am a believer that you should always get a picture of your kids in the dryer! She has started to really voice her opinions about things. She cries an angry/annoyed/ frustrated cry now. I love that about her! She knows what she wants! I would rather have a strong-willed child versus a child that you have to constantly engage and motivate.

Our New Edition

Avery is such an animal lover. She loves Scootch our cat who lives at Grammy and P-Pops house. She couldn't get enough of Uncle J and Aunt Cheryl's boxer, Jonnie and she even loves her Nan and Pops dog Maddy, who is deathly scared of her. We decided to go out and buy Avery an animal and even though it was not Easter we got her a Lop-eared bunny. She was so excited in the pet store seeing the new bunny. I am not sure who was more excited Avery or her mommy? Ange always wanted a bunny growing up so my two favorite girls were thrilled the day that we brought the bunny home. For a few days we just called it "bunny", but then came up with the name, Aspen.
Avery wants to touch the bunny all of the time. Right now Aspen is scarred of Avery, but she will learn to love her.

Mirror Images

This is one of my favorite pictures of Avery at about 1 month (Andrew). She doesn't understand what's going on but she still smiles.

Avery about 6 months. She definitely knows herself and of course is always smiling. She loves herself as you can see from the video below!!

Avery and Mirror

Here is Avery at almost 6 months playing in front of the mirror. She really understands now what is going on. She would play here all day. I think she loves herself!

Random

We got Avery a new bath mat the other day!! She really likes it! We took this picture after we got back from the shore last week and what I love most about this shot is Andrews burnt feet in the background! They were RED!

I think she is going to sit independently very soon!

This is what Avery wore for the 4th of July - it had cute

"ruffle butt" and an opened back shirt!

Here we all are on the 4th - we were so festive!

4th of July

Andrew and I spent the 4th of July (3rd of July) with Nate and Jen and Riley and lots of there friends from their Church, Circle of Hope! Nate and Jen recently moved to Glouster City to a cute little house. Anyway, GC had a parade and fireworks on the 3rd of July! We were excited because it was Averys first parade a fireworks show! She really loved the parade. There was lots to look at. Here she is with Uncle Nate. I am pretty sure she is thinking, "hmm you look just like my dad"

Here I am with Riley. She is at a great age for things like parades and fireworks. She chooses to sit with me because she knows Aunt Ange will give her the candy that she gets:) It's true! After the Parade we headed over to the baseball field for the fireworks. One thing that was awesome was the township opened their concession stand to sell food. Neither Andrew or I had eaten so he went over to get some food. Everything was $1. . .except soft pretzels, they were $.50! It was awesome. We got 2 hotdogs, a drink, cheese fries and a soft pretzel for $4.50! CHEAP date! Andrews kind of night!! Avery liked the fireworks, but half way through got hungry. I fed her and she fell alseep and missed the finale. Oh well, there is always next year. So we celebrated the 4th a day early, but I am glad we went because we were supposed to got the Washington Townships parade and fireworks on the 4th, but they were cancelled due to a tornado watch. Bummer!

On another note I think Avery might crawl soon! She is ready to be on the move!! She is starting to really get frustrated when she can't do something she wants to do!!

Beach bums

Yesterday Andrew and I ventured out to the beach with Avery for the first time! We went with James and Miranda and met up with Corrie and Josh. It is amazing how much more you have to bring to the beach for a baby. We bought her a little tent to sleep in and we brought her baby pool for her to sit in. The baby pool once it is full is very hard to move, but the "MEN" thought if all three of them went to the water to fill the pool they could carry it back. They actually got it back to our spot, but it didn't have much water in it! Avery didn't seem to care that there wasn't much water in it. . . she loved it!

Yes, it is true I got in the pool with Avery. People must have been thinking "look at the crazy lady sitting in a baby pool", but I didn't care because Avery was very happy! It is always nerve racking to take a baby to the beach, you never know what to expect . . .will she eat, sleep, cry the whole time, poop through every outfit we brought, but Avery was amazing. She even slept for about 2 hours in her little tent. She handled the day perfectly. We were so excited because for those of you who do not know I am a complete beach bum!! I come from a entire line of beach bums. My dads dream job is to collect trash at the shore! Yesterday I told Corrie that Averys P-pop would be proud. She even followed all beach etiquette except for when she was not wearing her bathing suit top. OOPS. . .it was cute though!

Here are some cute pictures from the day!!!

So I can not figure out how to flip that picture of Andrew and Avery, but as you can see they were both very happy! Now that we know Avery loves the beach we will be there whenever we can!!

2 in one day!

I just wanted to post some cute pictures that we have!

Look how cute our little summer baby is!

FAMILY BED!

Pool PARTY!!

This past Wednesday Andrew, Avery and I went to a pool party for youth group. James and Miranda have decided to do fun activities for youth group during the summer since so many people are on vacation. Anyway, our first event was a pool party at the Shurrs' house. We were very excited to let Avery go in the pool. I was a little nervous because a few weeks earlier we had tried her in her baby pool and she screamed!! At first Avery was not sure about the pool. She cried for about 5 to 10 minutes off and on and eventually she really enjoyed the water.

Here she is splashing and getting water all over her face. She did not care. We played in the pool for about 45 minutes and she had a great time! As you can see we both had to wear our one peice bathing suits to abide by the Youth group dress code!! Avery has some very cute bikinis. . . you will see them in blogs to come!

Taking Applications

Today my eyes were opened up and I realize that it is time to retire from teaching... already! I gave teaching a shot, but in a way I have been introduced to another area of teaching. This morning at 5:30 until 12:30 in the afternoon I was on baby duty not only with my beautiful daughter, but also with a little boy Logan who is 4 weeks younger than Avery. Here is just one of the pictures I took of them showing me how much fun they had with me being their Daddy as well as their Super Manny. Logan was here at 5:30 and Avery was still sleeping. When Avery got up I placed her on her stomach on the ground and she spotted this stranger swinging in her swing. She was captivated by Logan for like 10 minutes and just stared at him while he went up and down on her swing. Avery is alittle flirt. Whenever she was close to Logan she would chat his ear off. It was really cute, but I have to watch out for that as a father because there is a lot of boys her age around here with the friends we have as well as the little boys at church.

Here is Avery and Logan enjoying each others company. Avery was alittle grabby for Logan and wanted to either grab his hands or place her hands on his face. She was alittle too aggressive, but Super Manny allowed it because they were having a great time together. If you send in your application for Mannying I will be sure to look out for your kids!!

After face to face eye contact for a few minutes for the first time I thought about how boys should present themselves to my daughter. It took a few minutes, but Logan finally realized he needed to honor and respect Avery with a curtious bow. Just kidding, but Logan knew whose house he was in. If you are reading this post don't hesitate to call me to watch your children. It probably will be the best experience ever! If too many people call I will have to start charging and I'll probably charge more than I make as a teacher. Alright, just thought I would share about my fun morning watching two beautiful kids.

Happy 25th Birthday Babe

I just wanted to take this time to wish Andrew, the love of my life, a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! 25 years ago today you were born and I thank the Lord everyday for your life. I am so excited to spend the next 25. . .30. . . 50 years with you! You have completed my life and I hope you know how deeply I love you! I hope you had a wonderful day! Happy Birthday!

Avery says Happy Birthday too. . .

"Schools Out...FOR SUMMER!!

Here is a photo of me all smiles going to preschool for the first time. It's funny how we get so excited when the beginning of the year comes and we are ready to start a new year of school. If you look at the picture I was pretty much a stud. I mean, check out my dog surfing outfit. I don't think I was really ready for school to begin, maybe I still should be at the beach.

Today was the last day of school and concluded my first year of teaching 4th grade. I always became excited for school to begin and there then comes a moment during the year where I say, "Can't wait for school to be out" (usually it was about 2-3 weeks into the year). I was never much of a school person during elementary, junior high, high school, and college so I am sure for the next 20 or so years I will say each year "I am glad its the summer because school is finished!" I am excited for the summer so I can wear my dog surfing outfit, but come fall I will be excited to start a new year.

Smarty Pants

Avery loves the computer! Whenever we have it out she nose dives toward it. I decided the other day to let her leave her Uncle J a comment on his myspace. She hit the key board a couple of times and then held down the "J" for a long time! It was a coincidence, but I still thought it was cute that we were leaving Uncle J a comment and she held down the J. Anyway, I think she looks very intellegent at the computer. All she needs is a cute little pair of glasses which she inevitably will get, since both Andrew and I and both sets of our parents wear glasses. maybe soon we will let her type her own blog!

An Eventful Weekend

This weekend was full of running. Friday was my dads 50th birthday!!! It is hard to believe he is 50. I can remember all through high school everyone commenting on how young our parents were and I guess still are. Just because we are all getting older doesn't change the fact that our parents are still the youngest around. We all got together Friday night! My brother J and his wife Cheryl came up from Virginia for the weekend, so they were there too! They brought their 2 "kids"; Johnny and Doc (there 2 dogs)! Avery loved Johnny. . . we didn't get to see Doc because they only brought Johnny to meet everyone! Here is Avery meeting the Dog! I think it is amazing that she had NO fear of Johnny. She wanted to grab him and eat him!! It was so cute. Anyway, we hung out at my parents until about 11:30pm. . . Andrew and I and Josh and Corrie all slept over their house because we all had to be that direction early on Saturday morning. On Saturday Andrew, my dad, Josh, and J all went to a fathers day breakfast. It was Andrews' first fathers day event as a father! Saturday night we had a party to celebrate my Nana and Pop-Pops 50th wedding anniversary. It was really nice. People stood up and shared great memories about them! It is amazing to think about people sharing 50 years together. In todays society it is rare to get to 20 years, so what a blessing for them to make it to 50!! At the party we decided to give Avery some "real" food. She tried sweet potatoes for the first time! She REALLY liked it! Today of course was Fathers' Day. . . Andrews' very first! We had both of our parents over for dinner! J and Cheryl came by for a little while and also Josh Maxwell. It was a wonderful weekend. I love to spend time with my family, but after a long weekend it is nice to sit in the quiet of my own living room and reflect on the great life I have and the AWESOME family that we are blessed with. Like every family there are times that it can be overwhelming, especially when you HAVE to go and participate in EVERY family event, but my cousin Jen who now lives in South Carolina put things in perspective for me. I was making a joke about how she gets out of sharing her childhood memory and how she gets out of not going. She said, "I am really disappointed that I can't go because when there is a choice to go or not and the only choice is not to go because of distance I would choose to be there with the family." My sister feels the same way. I am so glad that Avery will grow up surrounded by people who love and care for her. For my family who lives far away, know that we love you and miss you terribly!

Picture Wall

In Pottery Barn magazines I always see walls that have collages of pictures on them. I have always like the way this looked, but Pottery Barn is so expensive. Andrew and I had been looking for "cheap" picture frames that didn't look cheap. I wanted black frames with white or off-white matting. Finding these frames was very difficult! We also didn't want to put the collage up until we moved into our new apartment. So we have moved in and we found frames at Target on clearance for $1.25 a piece. . . they were perfect. Now I just had to take and make prints of the pictures I wanted in the collage. I was off on Tuesday and I woke up with an agenda to get lots of stuff done around the house, especially the picture wall! Of course I got side-tracked so the wall didn't get done until 9:00pm, but it is done. Here is the finished product

Just because

Ok - So I could not resist putting these pictures on so here they are for no reason at all. This picture os Avery in Andrew's baseball hat really shows how much she looks like her daddy. You know it really isn't fair that the mommy does all of the work and then the babies look like their daddy! I know a few women who feel this way!!! Anyway, the picture of Avery on Andrews back is probably my favorite picture ever. It is really hard to get a picture of Avery smiling because of the delay on digital cameras, but this picture turned out awesome! Just wanted to share the most recent pictures. Enjoy!